In this Valentine's Day, we feature postcard US-1823773 to Germany that shows a heart-shaped sculpture at the corner of Union Square in San Francisco. Every year, a set of 5-foot, 400-pound hearts are made, painted by local artists, and put on display around various city locations in San Francisco. They are auctioned off to raise funds for San Francisco General Hospital Foundation. The picture on the card was taken on June 24, 2012.
You can find more pictures of the hearts at other locations from a post I Left my Heart in San Francisco at blog Little Hiccups.
Postcard NL-2316706 from the Netherlands shows a popular phase "Bakkie doen?" in Dutch, meaning "Let's have a cup of coffee?"
There was a short documentary film titled "Bakkie doen!" that was made during the 48 Hour Film Project at Breda, the Netherlands in 2011, when 37 teams of filmmakers went out for a weekend of filmmaking in Breda. Based on a randomly assigned genre, a character, a prop and a line of dialogue, filmmakers would wrote, shot and edited a movie in 48 hours. 30 out of the 37 finished on time. All completed movies were shown at Pathé Breda during the International Film Festival Breda on March 27th, 2011. "Bakkie doen!" won the awards of the Best Directing, the Best Female Acting, and the Public Choice. It was a Runner-up for the Best Film.
Postcard US-2628163 to Japan shows a fun map of Austin, the capital of Texas, designed by FunGraphix. It is the 11th-largest city in the U.S. and the fourth-largest city in the state of Texas, and home to the University of Texas at Austin.
Austin hosts South by Southwest (SXSW), a cluster of festivals of film, interactive media, and music, and technical conferences every year in spring. It will run from March 7 to March 16 in 2014.
Postcard US-2615869 to Finland shows a winter scene on Lake Michigan. However, when I bought this postcard during a layover at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport on August 27, 2013, I had no idea that the incoming winter in Chicago could be the 8th snowiest in history by early February, 2014. The unusual repeated arctic cold air assaults have over 60% of Lake Michigan frozen. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter "Biscayne Bay" is working to break ice on the southern Lake Michigan.
For Finnish people who are no strangers to a cold weather, here are the forecasts for Chicago and Helsinki in comparison.
Postcard FI-2007704 from Helsinki is gorgeous by itself. However, I was equally impressed by the stamp that came with the card. The stamp was the first issue in the series depicting Finnish national parks, issued in 2009. It shows the winter landscape of the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park at western Lapland. The stamp is friendly to the visually impaired with the Braille text "1 lk. kl", the 1st class non-value indicator. The stamp was designed by Teemu Ollikainen and photographed by Pekka Luukkola.
Postcard US-2598763 to Taiwan shows that a charming Panda looks out over a beautiful valley with cranes flying by, created by Birgit Schulz from London, Ontario, Canada. Although unrelated, I was reminded to this card when I saw the crew from Panda!, a new resident show at Palazzo, performing at the Chinatown Plaza in Las Vegas for the Chinese New Year Celebrations today on February 9, 2014.
The new show follows the hero’s journey of a panda Long Long, trying to save his girl peacock princess from evil. Director An Zhao, who had involved in directing the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, said in a news release: "We've taken two of China's national treasures, pandas and kung fu, and illuminated them in a visually stunning production that tells an unforgettable and timeless story. Our team couldn't be happier to bring this experience to the international audiences Las Vegas is known to attract."
The show's opening was planned for December, 2013 but was delayed by a month due to visa problems. The congressional office of the U.S. Representative Dina Titus was involved to help securing the visa. She was pictured with the Panda! crew at the festival today.
Postcard US-2615407 to Germany shows a Chinese New Year themed card with a horse in traditional Chinese art. As the Year of the Horse celebration runs from January 31, 2014 (Spring Festival) to February 14, 2014 (Lantern Festival), downtown Las Vegas is marking the occasion with an international food vendor village, live ice sculpture demonstrations, and special performances on the 3rd Street Stage at the Fremont Street Experience during the 3rd Chinese New Year in the Desert festival this weekend from February 7 to February 9, 2014. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman kicked-off the festival during the opening ceremony yesterday.
Dragon dance by the Las Vegas Lohan School of Shaolin on February 7, 2014
